Many members of the SA, including its leader Ernst Rhm, were demanding that the Nazi party carry out its socialist agenda and that the SA take over the army. "It was plain that there was wide acceptance of the deliberately misleading propaganda put out by the regime. Rhm was very critical of Hitler's policies of working with rich businessmen and the army. The widows of the murdered SA leaders received between 1,000 and 1,600 marks a month, depending on the rank of the murdered person. [53][54], Wanting to present the massacre as legally sanctioned, Hitler had the cabinet approve a measure on 3 July that declared, "The measures taken on June 30, July 1 and 2 to suppress treasonous assaults are legal as acts of self-defence by the State. On 1 July, at Hitler's behest, Theodor Eicke, Commandant of the Dachau concentration camp, and his SS adjutant Michael Lippert visited Rhm. government, under President Hindenburg. When the Nazi regime did not take such steps, those who had expected an economic as well as a political revolution were disillusioned. The Nazis improvised. The Freikorps were nationalistic organizations primarily composed of disaffected, disenchanted, and angry German combat veterans founded by the government in January 1919 to deal with the threat of a Communist revolution when it appeared that there was a lack of loyal troops. Gring alone had over a thousand people arrested. Hitler's Purge: The Night of the Long Knives Explained On the night of June 30, 1934, Rhm and many more leaders of the SA were shot by members of Heinrich Himmlers SS (Schutzstaffeln; German: Protective Echelon). Night Of The Long Knives: Hitler's Purge Of The Nazi Party The first concentration camp, Dachau, opened in a broken-down munitions factory on the 20 March 1933, imprisoning primarily political prisoners. ", "After the 'Night of the Long Knives,' [Reich Minister for Justice Franz Grtner] nipped in the bud the attempts of some local state prosecutors to initiate proceedings against the killers. They would later reopen it to liquidate the d ghetto. [19] The British historian Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, who knew Schleicher and his circle well, wrote that Bredow displayed a "lack of discretion" that was "terrifying" as he went about showing the list of the proposed cabinet to anyone who was interested. An atmosphere of panic and terror followed the event. In response, Hitler met Blomberg and the leadership of the SA and SS on 28 February 1934. Night of the Long Knives: newspaper coverage, Third Reich: The Rhm affair and the Night of the Long Knives, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/event/Night-of-the-Long-Knives, Spartacus Educational - Night of the Long Knives, History Learning Site - The Night of the Long Knives, Alpha History - The Night of the Long Knives, German soldiers swearing allegiance to Adolf Hitler. We were close personal friends; we often dined together in Berlin. [51] Meanwhile, Goebbels tried to prevent newspapers from publishing lists of the dead, but at the same time used a 2 July radio address to describe how Hitler had narrowly prevented Rhm and Schleicher from overthrowing the government and throwing the country into turmoil. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini sent four army divisions up the Brenner Pass and to the Carinthian frontier, and the Italian press vehemently denounced German imperialism and bad faith. A poster from the March 1933 elections. The SS found Breslau SA leader Edmund Heines in bed with an unidentified eighteen-year-old male SA senior troop leader. Macmillan's 'Night of the Long Knives' was political genius (1962) [72] Fritsch and Blomberg suddenly now claimed at the end of 1934 that as army officers they could not stand the exceedingly violent press attacks on Schleicher and Bredow that had been going on since July, which portrayed them as the vilest traitors, working against the Fatherland in the pay of France. [62] General von Reichenau went so far as to publicly give credence to the lie that Schleicher had been plotting to overthrow the government. Night of the Long Knives - Achieving Total Power - July 1933 - August [22] Himmler named his deputy Reinhard Heydrich to head the Gestapo on 22 April 1934. Excellency, save Germany for the fourth time! Corrections? While Nazism was not exclusively or even primarily a working-class phenomenon, the SA fulfilled the yearning of many unemployed workers for class solidarity and nationalist fervour. Plenary: Form a circle of 6-8 students and paraphrase passport everything you have learnt about the Night of the Long Knives. Night of the Long Knives - Consolidation of power - WJEC - BBC Terror and intimidation became one of the main ways that the Nazis sought to control or suppress their opposition, and Germans in general. Finally, Hitler used the purge to attack or eliminate German critics of his new regime, especially those loyal to Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, as well as to settle scores with old enemies.[a]. persecution [69] The memo asked that Hindenburg instead create a directorate to rule Germany, comprising the Chancellor (who was not named), General Werner von Fritsch as Vice-Chancellor, Hammerstein as Minister of Defense, the Minister for National Economy (also unnamed), and Rudolf Nadolny as Foreign Minister. This topic will explore how the Nazis managed to eliminate their opposition and Despite this, on the whole, Gleichschaltung was largely successful. Grtner also declared in cabinet that the measure did not in fact create any new law, but simply confirmed the existing law. There were 4 main reasons why the Night of the Long Knives occurred: Ernst Rhm had become too powerful with 3 million SA loyal to him. concentration camp Goebbels became responsible for controlling the national media, film, theatre, arts, and other cultural aspects. Some of those executed by Hitler were once considered close allies and friends. [m] Years later, in November 1945, while being interviewed by psychologist Gustave Gilbert in his cell during the Nuremberg trials, Gring angrily justified the killings to Gilbert, "It's a damn good thing I wiped them out, or they would have wiped us out!"[85]. The Night of the Long Knives - the Education Forum It's helped us to become more accustomed to acts of grim self-interested political butchery; but for those witnessing these events as they happened, they were simply unprecedented. [72] In a speech given on 3 January 1935, at the Berlin State Opera, Hitler stated that Schleicher and Bredow had been shot "in error" on the basis of false information, and that their names were to be restored to the honour rolls of their regiments at once. [57][58], A special fund administered by SS General Franz Breithaupt was set up for the relatives of the murdered, from which they were cared for at the expense of the state. In a new pair Rally Coach this worksheet. On the 23 March 1933, Hitler proposed the Enabling Law to the Reichstag. 15 Apr 2023. On the 28 February 1933, President Hindenburg signed the Emergency Decree for the Protection of the German People. [38], Although Hitler presented no evidence of a plot by Rhm to overthrow the regime, he nevertheless denounced the leadership of the SA. The camps were brutal and had extremely unsanitary conditions. On the 4 October 1933, it was declared that all editors must be Aryan. Your Excellency has thrice before saved Germany from foundering, at Tannenberg, at the end of the War and at the moment of your election as Reich President. The purge list is drawn up. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Gring and Heinrich Himmler, ordered a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate his power and alleviate the concerns of the German military about the role of Ernst Rhm and the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazis' paramilitary organization, known colloquially as "Brownshirts". "[74], Hitler named Viktor Lutze to replace Rhm as head of the SA. 89.93% voted in favour of Hitler. approved a bill legalising the purge as emergency defence measures. Hitler entitled the purge the 'Night of the Long Knives' - a reference to the lyrics from a popular Nazi song. The Party had generally been aligned with the Social Democrats and Catholic Church during the rise of Nazism, being critical of Nazi ideology, but voting nonetheless for the Enabling Act of 1933 which granted Hitler dictatorial authority. Through these aspects the Nazis suppressed any opposition to their power, and were able to start the road from democracy to a dictatorship. Hitler shouted at Schneidhuber and accused him of treachery. Centuries of jurisprudence proscribing extrajudicial killings were swept aside. Having earlier imprisoned or exiled prominent Social Democrats and Communists, Hitler used the occasion to move against conservatives he considered unreliable. Source starter, video introducing the night of the long knives, source analysis assessing causes and consequences of the night of the long knives, describe 4 mark question built in and overall judgement building on the learning sequence of the most significant reason Hitler was able to establish a dictatorship. Rhm wanted to have his troops incorporated into the new Wehrmacht that was being prepared to take the place of the Reichswehr, despite the fact that the conservative-minded generals were resolutely opposed to any such contamination of the army by the SA. On 25 April 1933, the Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities was issued, restricting the number of Jewish students. [5] In June 1932, one of the worst months of political violence, there were more than 400 street battles, resulting in 82 deaths. Hence, the Freikorps were in opposition to the new Weimar Republic, which was born as a result of the November Revolution, and whose founders were contemptuously called "November criminals". However, this power was limited, as the Nazis were just one party in a three party Blomberg and many of his fellow officers were recruited from the Prussian nobility and regarded the SA as a plebeian rabble that threatened the army's traditional high status in German society. Gring declared that the communists had planned a national uprising to overthrow the Weimar Republic. How Night Of Long Knives Affected Hitler's Rise To Power As the leader of the SA, Rhm was seen as a threat to Hitlers power. This would allow them to rule unopposed and unhindered by coalition governments. [h], The action Hitler took would not only defang Rhm and the SA as a potential threat to Hitler's personal control of the Nazi Party, but would also serve to strengthen his relationship with the Wehrmacht the German armed forces which had long considered the SA to be their primary rival, the SA at times outnumbering the military in manpower.[10].